Sign-In
Cart
"THE CITY BUILT ON SUFFERING." A dark gothic fantasy novel of power, the reign of corrupt faith and the lies that sustain the world.
Paperback
Publisher: Independently Published
Published: Jan 16 2026
Pages: 160
Weight: 0.49
Height: 0.34 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
A gothic dark fantasy novel of power,
the realm of corrupted faith and the lie that holds the world together.
Velmora is a city raised upon an unspeakable compromise.
A place of black spires, vertiginous cathedrals, and districts choked by mist, where order is not born of justice, but of sacrifice.
Beneath its foundations lies an ancient divinity in chains.
A god not worshipped, but bound.
An entity forced to suffer so that the city may endure.
The Council rules Velmora knowing the truth and choosing, every single day, to bury it. The official faith preaches stability and redemption, unaware that it is itself part of the binding. Politics, religion, and magic intertwine in a fragile balance, sustained only through silence and fear.
When the Seals that imprison the god begin to weaken, the city reveals its true face. Districts collapse, magic grows unstable, and the population begins to fracture. Order-once accepted-shows itself for what it has always been: a normalized form of violence.
Arkend Valis, inquisitor of the Council, is the man tasked with protecting that balance at any cost. He has seen what lies beneath Velmora and has accepted compromises few would dare to bear. But as the city fractures, his convictions begin to crumble as well.
Maelira, priestess and healer, perceives what others refuse to hear. Through visions, dreams, and cracks in stone, she hears the voice of the chained god-an ancient lament carrying fragments of truth about Velmora's past and the choices that doomed it.
In the shadows move the Buried, a clandestine sect that knows pieces of the truth and seeks to break the binding, even at the cost of the city's total destruction. No faction is innocent. No choice is without consequence.
The City Built on Suffering is a gothic, political dark fantasy novel with a mature and somber tone, exploring:
power as moral compromise
faith as a tool of control
sacrifice as the foundation of civilization
the weight of impossible choices
With evocative prose, a deliberately measured pace, and morally complex characters, the novel speaks to readers drawn to dark worlds, corrupted cities, and stories where truth is more dangerous than lies.
Velmora survives.
But nothing will ever be the same again.
This book opens a dark fantasy saga in which the city remains standing while the certainties that once sustained it collapse one by one.
If Velmora has spoken to you, give it a voice.
Also from
Bennett, Oliver D.
Also in
Fantasy
The Knight and the Moth (The Stonewater Kingdom, Book 1) (Indie Exclusive Edition)
Gillig, Rachel
Paperback
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Other Stories (Barnes & Noble Classics Series)
Stevenson, Robert Louis
Paperback
Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution
Kuang, R. F.
Paperback
The Princess Bride Deluxe Limited Edition: S. Morgenstern's Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure
Goldman, William
Paperback
Japanese Gothic: A Folk Horror Novel of Japanese Mythology, Murder, and Family Duty Across Two Timelines
Baker, Kylie Lee
Hardcover
Assistant to the Villain: A Cozy Fantasy Romantic Comedy from a Tiktok Sensation
Maehrer, Hannah Nicole
Paperback
The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi: A New Fantasy Series Set a Thousand Years Before the City of Brass
Chakraborty, Shannon
Paperback